While LTE and LTE-Advanced deployments are still underway, mobile operators and vendors have already embarked on R&D initiatives to develop so-called “5G” technology, with a vision of commercialization by 2020. 5G is essentially a revolutionary paradigm shift in wireless networking to support the throughput, latency and scalability requirements of future use cases such as extreme bandwidth augmented reality applications and connectivity management for Billions of M2M (Machine to Machine) devices.

Although 5G is yet to be standardized, vendors are aggressively investing in 5G development efforts with a principal focus on new air interface transmission schemes, higher frequency bands and advanced antenna technologies such as Massive MIMO and beamforming. With large scale commercial deployments expected to begin in 2020, we estimate that 5G networks will generate nearly $250 Billion in annual service revenue by 2025.

Key Finding:

Although 5G is yet to be standardized, vendors are aggressively investing in 5G development efforts with a principal focus on new air interface transmission schemes, higher frequency bands and advanced antenna technologies such as Massive MIMO and beamforming. Driven by regional, national government, mobile operator and vendor initiatives, we expect that over $6 Billion will be spent on 5G R&D and trial investments between 2015 and 2020. With large scale commercial deployments expected to begin in 2020, we estimate that 5G networks will generate nearly $250 Billion in annual service revenue by 2025. 5G networks are expected to utilize a variety of spectrum bands for diverse applications, ranging from established sub-6 GHz cellular bands to millimeter wave frequencies.